Romney says he’d deport Dreamers…..

U.S. Senate candidate Mitt Romney spent much of a question-and-answer session in Provo Monday describing his relationship with President Donald Trump if elected, as well as establishing his conservative credentials.

Romney spoke to a crowd of a couple hundred at the Provo Library at an event sponsored by the Utah County Republican Women Monday afternoon.

Audience members were able to write questions for the former presidential candidate on note cards to have Romney answer them as they were read by a moderator.

One note card said that the person writing it, and all their Facebook friends, did not consider Romney to be very conservative, asking him whether he considered himself conservative, and if so, in what ways.

Romney said most people got to know his platforms during his 2012 presidential campaign, most of which were what he called “mainstream conservative.”

Romney went so far as to say he’s more conservative on certain issues than President Trump.

“For instance, I’m a deficit hawk,” Romney said. “That makes me more conservative than a lot of Republicans and a lot of Democrats. I’m also more of a hawk on immigration than even the president. My view was these DACA kids shouldn’t all be allowed to stay in the country legally.”….

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He said *nothing* about deportation in what is quoted in the article. He was apparently making a point that he had been considered very conservative on the issue in 2012, in regards to the path he said he wanted for them to have legal residence, which I don’t know why he feels he needs to make. He certainly spoke out against the concept of mass deportation, including in the 2012 primary campaign.

There is a nuance between that and deportation. He was stating (why he felt the need to do this, I don’t know) a position he claimed he had in 2012 that there would be other requirements necessary to in order to stay legally. In essence he was saying they would still be illegal. That is different though than deportation, but someone with his political experience should have realized that things can be taken out of context like that since he choose to go down the road.

He made a mistake by getting a question claiming that people didn’t believe he was conservative and deciding to pander. He’s never going to win everyone over and shouldn’t try.

Last week, he had filed a statement of declaration in which he had to state if there were any provisions of the party platform he disagreed with. In it he said DACA recipients should be given “legal status” but not a “special path to citizenship.”

The first aspect is that the way he answered the question at the form seemed to confuse the two things. His campaign Tweeted the full transcript of his remarks (a bunch was left out in the article) and the statement he filed last week.

As a matter of fairness and for the potential of full civic inclusion, I do support a path to citizenship for those who have qualified in the DACA program, but as I have said, I believed the time frame should ideally be 18 years (with an exception to lessen that time for those who enter into military service or perhaps some other kind of national service) in order to not in anyway disadvantage the full legal rights of those who are legally born citizens or those who have followed every possible rule and regulation to immigrate legally.

We all know though that the path will be several years less than 18 years and that should not be a deal-breaker to getting it done and solving the problem.

The most important thing is to establish legal status first, so that nobody, who is here through no illegal action of their own, is ever at the risk of being deported to a country they have no ties to, and that anybody in America has the opportunity to work, study, provide for themselves and their families, etc. You do not have to be a citizen to do so, but most of those people will one day want to become citizens, and that should be welcomed.

People in Utah tend to be pretty pro-immigration. It’s like he had a flashback that he was back in the Presidential primaries. He is not at risk for not being nominated or elected and saying this, even though it may technically have been true for the times where Trump has been all over the map on the question, and even though it may piss Trump off to hear from this Romney, is not serving the candidate well.

It’s disappointing for me to read that particular quote, but at the time same time, it shouldn’t be turned into something it wasn’t.

Romney has previously described himself as severely conservative. If that is not sucking up to the far right, than I don’t know what is. Yes, he technically did not say he supported deportation; he only said he is more of a “hawk” on immigration than Trump. Who knows exactly what that means? Perhaps he thinks that Trump was too soft when he called Mexicans rapists? But Romney was never consistent in what he advocated and it looks like that hasn’t changed. He remains a human weathervane – just like when he ran 6 years ago

But by being a deficit hawk does he mean he will seek to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits to reduce the debt, or will he be in favor of cutting the fat out of the military budget? Perhaps he will propose an automatic increase in the taxes of the 1% when the deficit reaches a certain level?